Monday, October 8, 2012

Book Reviews- Honest or Mean? Nice or Fake?

So… Recently I joined a Book Tour, my FIRST ever, and I was SUPER excited.

But then something happened. The book was pretty disappointing! Now, if you come here and ever see my reviews, you would notice that I RARELY rate something low. I mean, c’mon, I haven’t posted even ONE 1 Star review, and only ONE 2 star review.

Any book that is good- gets a 3 Star review. If it’s GREAT it’s 4, and if its Absolutely AMAZING in every way and I will read it more than once, its 5.

But this book was NOT good. It read like a rough draft. There were SO many problems with it that I felt bad writing the review. And I kept thinking, what I would I do if I got a review like this on my book?

It was honest, and not mean, but… probably hurt the author’s feelings, HARD Core.

SO-

I opted out of the Book Tour.

Now, I still plan on posting my review at some point, but it made me think,

How honest is too honest? How mean is too mean? How nice is too fake?

I would have been more upset had I bought the book. I would have felt cheated. I wouldn’t have even finished the book if it hadn’t been for this tour I was a part of.

On the bright side (I think) the author emailed me, and thanked me for reading her book and opting out of the tour. She explained that this was her first book (which I knew) and she appreciated my honesty and wanted to know my thoughts about what was wrong with her book. (I thought very highly of her for this, this was very professional and made me think more of her as an author!)

I am of the camp of reviewers/readers who values honesty and negative reviews very highly. I'm very proud that, in any given review I write, I'm 100% truthful, no matter what. Statistically speaking, I'm very hard to please, and I have scores of 1 and 2 star reviews. I am, personally, completely fine with that, as it seems to make my positive reviews that much more positive.

Yes, I have had a few authors and fans freak out and try to bully me into retracting my thoughts, because I always say it straight and I don't apologize for it. But I don't think there's such a thing as being "too honest" with one's opinion, especially not if I, as a consumer, purchased the book; or, as a reviewer, received an ARC with the author's understanding that I will be honest.

Thank you! This made me feel better!I feel like my reviews are honest and not mean, and usually nicer than they often should be... But because the author contacted me directly... I felt kinda bad teling her that I thought her book sucked. :(

Good for you. I think honesty (nice honesty--not brutal or mean) is the best policy, and it IS impressive how professional the author was. I hate giving low reviews, but something really has to "wow" me before I give it 5 stars. :)

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About Me

Theresa M Jones is just a regular small town, Texas girl. When she isn't at work at a local Medical Equipment provider, you can find her at home with her husband and two beautiful (and rambunctious) kiddos.
In her spare time- as if there ever was such a thing as "spare time" - she reads and reviews books on her book blog, and writes paranormal romance novels.
POWER (The Descendent Trilogy #1) is her debut New Adult (Mature YA) Paranormal Romance novel.